Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Happy Birthday, Mom!
My mom is the most difficult person to shop for. Every time I ask her what she wants for her birthday, she replies with "nothing." The same goes for Christmas. Over the years, I have bought her everything under the rainbow and every gift seems to fall short of the desired reaction I want from her. For Mother's Day, I arranged an assortment of healthy snacks and fruits in a basket since she is trying to lose weight. She said she liked it, but I never followed up on whether or not she actually consumed the items. I can tell the difference between her forced enthusiasm and a real one...usually. However, she has had me fooled a few times when I thought I got her something great but later find it at the back of her closet. This year I ended up getting her some balloons and a couple of scratch lotto tickets in a card. She plays a lot of scratch lotto, so at least that won't clutter her closet.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Another Step Towards Alcoholism
I’ve been eating spaghetti all week – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well, not really breakfast, I usually have a cup of Milo (malt drink) for breakfast. I do miss my rice cooker, but surprisingly, I haven’t been craving rice all that much. I left work early today to go evidence my work visa. Basically, I needed to get a work visa sticker put into my passport. I received my approval letter via email and printed it out. Then I took the train back into the city to pick up my passport and walked over to the immigration office. The wait wasn’t too bad, about 15 minutes or so. It took about 3 minutes to get my visa sticker put in my passport. I decided to work from the nearby office the rest of the afternoon. Of course, I couldn’t do much since I do not have VPN set up on my laptop. That was pretty extra ordinary, if you asked me.
Kevin met me around 7 in the city and we took the tram to Glitch bar in N. Fitzroy. Neil found himself a venue to perform his one man show – Pac Mondrian. This bar is quite a ways from the city, maybe half an hour tram ride. Besides the bar, there wasn’t much else around that I could see. I did stopped by a shop to snack on fish ‘n chips. Mary Beth arrived 2 rum and cokes later around 930pm. Neil got into his costume and started the show at 10pm. It was a combination of a piece of art with Pac man. He had music and video in the background while he recited a piece he had written about sex, drugs, and video games. In between, he would dance to the techno music. One of the few lines I remembered from the show was, “Come play with my stick, I’ll be your slut…” It was an interesting performance that lasted about 12 minutes. It’s hard to describe so I won’t try anymore. I watched most of it through a camera since I was taping part of his show for his viewing pleasure. Besides my colleagues, there were about 5 other people that were in the audience.
After the show, we went back to drop Neil’s costume at the apartment and checked out the places below:
Robot – A bar with Japanese décor, a cartoonish pop culture landscape of minimalist red couches, low lights, toys and old maps. There’s Asahi beer on tap plus Sapporo and Kirin beer and 10 types of sake all served hot or cold in traditional tokkuri flasks. Thai and Filipino beer was also stocked.
[Unfortunately, they were out of Asahi beer. I tried a milky sake and didn’t like it as much as the clear ones. We chatted with a couple of Sheila’s sitting next to us and they said that they like Canadian men much better than Aussie men. Kevin and Neil were pleased to hear that. It’s just too bad for them that their boyfriends were sitting at the bar.]
Phoenix – Fully equipped with conversation pit, dance floor, front bar and two upstairs rooms, Phoenix feels faintly 1970’s though the furniture is new and comfortable and the attitude modern. Drinks are affordable, service is excellent and the terrific bar food (including fries served in glazed vases) goes all night.
[This place probably had the cheapest beer so far, $4 for a pint. Which, by the way, is much smaller than an American pint.]
Ding Dong – Rock ‘n Roll bar, from the beer taps shaped like guitar necks to the eclectic roster of live gigs and classic disc on high rotation. Big comfy booths line the walls, a big table takes prime position in the center of the room, but there’s still plenty of space to rock on.
[We got here about an hour before it closed, so there weren’t too many people left. It was a big place with plenty of places to sit and huge dance floor. The people in there were grungy and what Kevin called “Emu.” I think that is equivalent to an American Emo.]
Melbourne Supper Club – Whether your idea of a great night is watching the sun set or seeing it rise, there’s no nicer place to do it. This oh-so-civilized aerie is a venue we keep returning to – for the book-length wine list, the great cigars, terrific cocktails and excellent supper menu, whether you’re in the mood for rice-paper rolls or sausage rolls.
[This place was difficult to find since it didn’t have a name nor an address on the outside. We were walking up and down the street until we finally saw a couple going up a few steps and opening a door. They did have delicious party pizza – which looked like mini meat pies filled with meat and gravy.]
Neil kept ordering Jameson (whisky) so we hung out at the supper club for a while. Finally got home at 5 am and went to bed.
 |
| Pac Mondrian |
After the show, we went back to drop Neil’s costume at the apartment and checked out the places below:
Robot – A bar with Japanese décor, a cartoonish pop culture landscape of minimalist red couches, low lights, toys and old maps. There’s Asahi beer on tap plus Sapporo and Kirin beer and 10 types of sake all served hot or cold in traditional tokkuri flasks. Thai and Filipino beer was also stocked.
[Unfortunately, they were out of Asahi beer. I tried a milky sake and didn’t like it as much as the clear ones. We chatted with a couple of Sheila’s sitting next to us and they said that they like Canadian men much better than Aussie men. Kevin and Neil were pleased to hear that. It’s just too bad for them that their boyfriends were sitting at the bar.]
Phoenix – Fully equipped with conversation pit, dance floor, front bar and two upstairs rooms, Phoenix feels faintly 1970’s though the furniture is new and comfortable and the attitude modern. Drinks are affordable, service is excellent and the terrific bar food (including fries served in glazed vases) goes all night.
[This place probably had the cheapest beer so far, $4 for a pint. Which, by the way, is much smaller than an American pint.]
Ding Dong – Rock ‘n Roll bar, from the beer taps shaped like guitar necks to the eclectic roster of live gigs and classic disc on high rotation. Big comfy booths line the walls, a big table takes prime position in the center of the room, but there’s still plenty of space to rock on.
[We got here about an hour before it closed, so there weren’t too many people left. It was a big place with plenty of places to sit and huge dance floor. The people in there were grungy and what Kevin called “Emu.” I think that is equivalent to an American Emo.]
Melbourne Supper Club – Whether your idea of a great night is watching the sun set or seeing it rise, there’s no nicer place to do it. This oh-so-civilized aerie is a venue we keep returning to – for the book-length wine list, the great cigars, terrific cocktails and excellent supper menu, whether you’re in the mood for rice-paper rolls or sausage rolls.
[This place was difficult to find since it didn’t have a name nor an address on the outside. We were walking up and down the street until we finally saw a couple going up a few steps and opening a door. They did have delicious party pizza – which looked like mini meat pies filled with meat and gravy.]
Neil kept ordering Jameson (whisky) so we hung out at the supper club for a while. Finally got home at 5 am and went to bed.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Half Way There
After work, we went back to the PI and dropped our stuff off. Neil changed into his clown suit (his colorful Warhol ODB jacket) and we headed out to St. Kilda with Mary Beth to Uber for an art opening. We were invited by the “gallerina” when we did our gallery hopping last weekend. I think Neil has a crush on her. Not only is she pretty, she’s super nice. She talked to him for a while at the gallery. He’s hoping that she makes it to his art show on Friday. Neil has been networking and a bar invited him to perform his dance and display his art work this Friday. I’m sure it’ll be very interesting.
Kevin and Donna met us at the gallery around 7pm. I really like Kevin’s wife. She’s always so nice to everyone and she helped me with my camera settings. She even baked me a cake, but I didn’t get the chance to see it, haha.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Domestic Living in Melbourne
Living in Southbank is pretty nice and the Pacific Internal hotel/serviced apartments aren’t too bad. Southbank is only a 10 minute walk from the CBD (Central Business District) where I can find lots of shops and restaurants. There’s an IGA express convenient store 2 minutes away. They have a restaurant on the main floor of the hotel, but it’s expensive. I haven’t eaten there yet. I saw a sign in the elevators advertising the full breakfast buffet for $19. They do have room service, which is good to have in case I ever get desperate for food.
My room rate is about $130 AUD/day and they come and clean it twice a week. There’s a small kitchen with a fridge, pots, utensils, dishware, toaster, water kettle, and a microwave/oven (it’s a microwave that’s also an oven, what a concept). Oddly enough, they didn’t provide me with a pan. There’s a couch with a pull out bed, TV, radio, hairdryer and laundry unit. Up on the 18th floor is the recreational area. I’ve used the pool twice already. There’s a dry sauna nearby that I hop into to get warmed up. It’s way too hot in there, though, I can hardly breath. So after about 30 seconds in the sauna, I would jump into the heated pool. There’s usually no one using it late at night or early in the morning. I’ll stop by the gym one of these days.
The weather here is as weird as it is in Chicago, without the snow. Since I’ve been here, it has fluctuated between 40’s and 70’s. I haven’t worn my winter jacket yet since it hasn’t been biting cold when the sun isn’t out. It’ll be coldest in the month of July and probably rainy.
One thing I have to get used to on the train is that the doors do not open automatically. My first time on the train, I stood and waited for it to open while Dave was wondering by I hadn’t pull the doors open. Then he called me a princess thinking that I was waiting for him to open the doors for me.
"Thank you, Shrek." I said.
Some trains have a button and some have a knob on the door and you have to wait for it to beep before opening it. I wasn’t the only one confused by the whole thing. The Canadians also didn’t understand the concept of opening train doors. I’ve been so conditioned to not touch the doors. I think I’ve gotten a hang of it by now. Another thing I noticed here is that people walk pretty darn fast. Have I lost my mad walking skills? I used to be the one passing people on the streets of Chicago. Here, women in high heels are breezing past by me like I was a turtle.
It’s one day before my birthday and I’m feeling old already. I want to bring a cake in tomorrow for the team, but there aren’t any bakeries nearby. I miss my Celica. I don’t feel like buying one at the grocery store and carrying it all the way in. My laptop bag is heavy enough, especially going uphill towards the office. Listen to me whine. You’d think I never lived downtown before. It’s different when it’s by choice. I didn’t realize the commute to work was this strenuous. Oh man, I should be ashamed of myself. It really isn’t bad. Exercise is good for me.
Well, since I’m whining already, I might as well mention how much I miss my filtered water and the internet. Bottled water here is too pricey, so I’ve resorted to boiling water and refrigerating it. Still tastes a little funny from time to time, leaving that lead-like after taste. They charge $0.55/minute to use the internet at the hotel with extra charges for uploading/downloading stuff. Needless to say, I don’t use the internet from home very much. I have to make a special trip to the office across the street to go online. It’s a hassle so I don’t make it there very often. The connection at work is a bit slow, plus I’m working most of the time so there isn’t much surfing to be done.
I’ve cooked for the first time here – yay. Nothing extravagant. In fact, nothing I’d invite anyone over to eat. I’d be too embarrassed to share it. It’s just spaghetti anyhow. For the sauce, I’ve added canned peas and canned lunch meat to the pasta sauce I picked from at Coles. Vegetables and meat, nutritious right? I didn’t get the chance to go to the market this weekend, so that was all I had. I’ve been eating it all week. Luckily, I haven’t had to eat it for lunch since there’s training going on next to our room and we take all the left over sandwiches. There will be more spaghetti next week, but I’ll switch up the sauce.
A lot of restaurants here do not take credit cards so I’ve been using a lot of cash. The Australians sure like their coins. They come in denominations of $0.05 (anything less is rounded up or down to this), $0.20, $0.50 (biggest coin), $1.00, and $2.00 (2nd smallest coin). It took me a while to get used to them. I think I inadvertently left a $3.00 tip when I bought my first beer. No wonder the bartender looked at my weird, especially when nobody tips in Oz. Somebody said that the service people make about $20/hour and don’t live on tips like they do in North America.
I had a laundry mishap and one of the dark shirt bled all over my comfy pink pants and sweater
*sniff* The buttons on the washer are not very intuitive, so I think I had inadvertently did the cycle in boiling hot water. I did a cycle on the blue side, but it didn't wash in cold water. When I saw steam coming out of the door when I opened it, I knew it was not a good sign. I usually wash in cold water to help keep the color from bleeding and prevent shrinkage. At least that’s what I tell myself. I can still wear the sweater since most of the dark colors are on the front and I can wear a vest to cover it up. My no-longer-pink pink pants that I wore on the airplane are ruined. I’ll have to find another outfit for the flight home. The rest of the clothes in the washer were dark, so they’re okay.
The weather here is as weird as it is in Chicago, without the snow. Since I’ve been here, it has fluctuated between 40’s and 70’s. I haven’t worn my winter jacket yet since it hasn’t been biting cold when the sun isn’t out. It’ll be coldest in the month of July and probably rainy.
One thing I have to get used to on the train is that the doors do not open automatically. My first time on the train, I stood and waited for it to open while Dave was wondering by I hadn’t pull the doors open. Then he called me a princess thinking that I was waiting for him to open the doors for me.
"Thank you, Shrek." I said.
Some trains have a button and some have a knob on the door and you have to wait for it to beep before opening it. I wasn’t the only one confused by the whole thing. The Canadians also didn’t understand the concept of opening train doors. I’ve been so conditioned to not touch the doors. I think I’ve gotten a hang of it by now. Another thing I noticed here is that people walk pretty darn fast. Have I lost my mad walking skills? I used to be the one passing people on the streets of Chicago. Here, women in high heels are breezing past by me like I was a turtle.
It’s one day before my birthday and I’m feeling old already. I want to bring a cake in tomorrow for the team, but there aren’t any bakeries nearby. I miss my Celica. I don’t feel like buying one at the grocery store and carrying it all the way in. My laptop bag is heavy enough, especially going uphill towards the office. Listen to me whine. You’d think I never lived downtown before. It’s different when it’s by choice. I didn’t realize the commute to work was this strenuous. Oh man, I should be ashamed of myself. It really isn’t bad. Exercise is good for me.
Well, since I’m whining already, I might as well mention how much I miss my filtered water and the internet. Bottled water here is too pricey, so I’ve resorted to boiling water and refrigerating it. Still tastes a little funny from time to time, leaving that lead-like after taste. They charge $0.55/minute to use the internet at the hotel with extra charges for uploading/downloading stuff. Needless to say, I don’t use the internet from home very much. I have to make a special trip to the office across the street to go online. It’s a hassle so I don’t make it there very often. The connection at work is a bit slow, plus I’m working most of the time so there isn’t much surfing to be done.
 |
| Just add sphaghetti |
A lot of restaurants here do not take credit cards so I’ve been using a lot of cash. The Australians sure like their coins. They come in denominations of $0.05 (anything less is rounded up or down to this), $0.20, $0.50 (biggest coin), $1.00, and $2.00 (2nd smallest coin). It took me a while to get used to them. I think I inadvertently left a $3.00 tip when I bought my first beer. No wonder the bartender looked at my weird, especially when nobody tips in Oz. Somebody said that the service people make about $20/hour and don’t live on tips like they do in North America.
I had a laundry mishap and one of the dark shirt bled all over my comfy pink pants and sweater
*sniff* The buttons on the washer are not very intuitive, so I think I had inadvertently did the cycle in boiling hot water. I did a cycle on the blue side, but it didn't wash in cold water. When I saw steam coming out of the door when I opened it, I knew it was not a good sign. I usually wash in cold water to help keep the color from bleeding and prevent shrinkage. At least that’s what I tell myself. I can still wear the sweater since most of the dark colors are on the front and I can wear a vest to cover it up. My no-longer-pink pink pants that I wore on the airplane are ruined. I’ll have to find another outfit for the flight home. The rest of the clothes in the washer were dark, so they’re okay.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Art Day
I had a good night’s rest and woke up around 10am. Saturday was art gallery hopping day. Neil and I headed out at 11am and shopped for a digital camera. He had an accident with his phone (which he used as a camera) so he needed a new camera. He ended up with a Fuji Z3, which I think I read about a while back. They make good cameras, so I gave it my approval.
A lot of the galleries have shortened hours or were closed on Saturdays. I think we were able to see about 70% of the galleries we visited. We walked all over CBD following the Art Almanac looking for these places. There were many weird arts like scrap metal and broken ceramic plates. After we hit all the Melbourne galleries, we took a 15-minute tram ride to St. Kilda to the Uber gallery. The exhibit in this one was well worth the trip. The collection contained huge surreal photographs of people and animals in bright colors by an artist named Paolo Consorti.
I was hungry by this time so we stopped by a Japanese noodle shop. While I waited for my food, I looked through the sushi selection in the front glass display. I was immediately repulsed by the cockroach that was walking up and down the sushi aisle waving his antenna around like he owned the place. I was glad I didn’t order sushi. I wanted to tell the guy working behind the counter, but I didn’t want the drama of him trying to catch the bug to unfold in front of me. So I waited for my soup outside.
After dinner, we walked 5 minutes to take a look at St. Kilda’s beach. It was getting cool, so there weren’t many people by the beach. I took some pictures and Neil tested out his new camera. It was about 5pm by this time and I was exhausted. I went home and took a 2-hour nap. Neil and I meet Kevin at a Richmond bar around 9pm. 2 martini’s later and I called it an early night. Got home around midnight after a nauseating train ride then puked up the second martini. I should have known to stop at the first one. I felt a lot better after that and passed out for another night for good sleep.
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| Art |
I was hungry by this time so we stopped by a Japanese noodle shop. While I waited for my food, I looked through the sushi selection in the front glass display. I was immediately repulsed by the cockroach that was walking up and down the sushi aisle waving his antenna around like he owned the place. I was glad I didn’t order sushi. I wanted to tell the guy working behind the counter, but I didn’t want the drama of him trying to catch the bug to unfold in front of me. So I waited for my soup outside.
 |
| Should have stopped at this one |
Friday, May 25, 2007
Another Bar Hopping Weekend
It’s been a slow work week. I’ve been helping the testers with some of their questions and testing roster costing. By Friday, I didn’t have much to do and the client left the office by 4pm. We stuck around until 5pm and headed home. Neil and I dropped our stuff off at the apt. and met Kevin and his wife, Donna, at PJ O’Brian bar in Southgate. I was hungry at this point and held off on drinking before dinner. We went to a nearby restaurant and Donna left for her weekend trip to take mountain biking pictures. It must be fun being a professional photographer.
I had Coopers beer and samosas for dinner. The food was good but the beer was too bitter. The first stop after dinner was St. Jerome bar that’s situated in the middle an alley way with tarp hanging overhead. There were people dressed as pirates, apparently for some girl’s birthday. One thing I learned about Australians, they love to wear costumes. Which then leads me to the question what I should dress up as for my birthday next week. Neil stole a plastic sword from one of the women pirates and yelled out “Give me your booty.” I didn’t hear them laughing, but maybe because the music was too loud. We were sitting next to the speakers blaring deafening hip hop music that I started feeling queasy from the bass. We left shortly thereafter.
Afterward, we went to find the fish crate bar called Sector 8. The actual bar itself was made out of aluminum fish crates. It’s another outdoor bar with wooden crates to sit on. I had a lot of layers on so it wasn’t cold being outside. I’d say the temperature was around 60 degrees. Then we went to meet Joe and his brother at Cherry. There was a cover charge at this bar and we weren’t sure if they were still inside. Kevin sent Joe a text and they came out. Most of the bars in Melbourne do not have cover charges, so we didn’t want to go to places that did have one. We walked around the corner of the alley and a bar was just opening. The bouncers were trying to get people to go inside, so we checked it out.
It’s called the Alley Bar and there were only a few people. I think most of them worked there. I sat down on a chair to check out what’s on tap when a guy approached me asking for a favor. He wanted me to check the women’s bathroom to make sure his girlfriend was doing okay. I guess she has been in there a long time. Well, by the time we walked over to the ladies room, his girlfriend was coming out. She was happy that her boyfriend cared so much to check up on her. How long could she have been in the bathroom if they just opened? They had a live band so we stayed. I tried a beer called St. Nanou and it was pretty good.
Joe was getting up early in the morning to catch a flight to Kangaroo island, so he left and the rest of us swaggered on. We found an Irish bar, evident by the huge Irish flag flying outside. They had a live band playing 80’s music upstairs. There was a hunched back old man dancing the night away right in front of the band and was later invited onto the stage to play the tambourine. I think that made his night.
There was a grumpy old man sitting by the bar who grumbled under his breath about my shirt. I was wearing my Amsterdam shirt with a cat on it. How dare he not like it! I held my anger and walked away. The boys had a beer and we left. We walked around looking for another place to go but a lot of them were closing. We ended up at another place called Irish Times that was playing house music, to Neil’s liking. I didn’t want to drink any more by this time so I drank water. We stayed out until 2am and headed home. I think I’ve been to more bars since I’ve been to Melbourne than I have in my lifetime.
 |
| St. Jerome |
Joe was getting up early in the morning to catch a flight to Kangaroo island, so he left and the rest of us swaggered on. We found an Irish bar, evident by the huge Irish flag flying outside. They had a live band playing 80’s music upstairs. There was a hunched back old man dancing the night away right in front of the band and was later invited onto the stage to play the tambourine. I think that made his night. There was a grumpy old man sitting by the bar who grumbled under his breath about my shirt. I was wearing my Amsterdam shirt with a cat on it. How dare he not like it! I held my anger and walked away. The boys had a beer and we left. We walked around looking for another place to go but a lot of them were closing. We ended up at another place called Irish Times that was playing house music, to Neil’s liking. I didn’t want to drink any more by this time so I drank water. We stayed out until 2am and headed home. I think I’ve been to more bars since I’ve been to Melbourne than I have in my lifetime.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Bar Hopping
Neil is in town for the next month doing training materials for the client. He’s a Canadian based out of the New York office. We went out for sushi dinner on Saturday night at the first sushi restaurant we saw on Swanston Street. They had sushi on a conveyor belt and they were pretty good. The salmon was fresh and tasty. After dinner, we met up with Joe and Andrew for a beer at an outdoor bar. It was starting to get chilly out, but I had a hoody on so I was able to keep warm. Joe and Andrew decided to go back to the apt. because they were tired at midnight. Normally, I would follow right behind them since it was way past my bedtime. But I had a nap during the day and I wanted to check out the scenes.
Neil had done some research on bars he thought were interesting, so we started walking downtown. Melbourne is all about bars with themes. First, we went to the Loop, which had video game images projected onto the walls. The people were friendly at the bars and they would randomly start conversations with us. I think one guy was Russian and he had a thick accent which made it hard to understand what he was saying. He was a sprayer so I had to keep wiping his spit off my arm every minute or so…gross.
We met a group of locals that invited us along on their bar hopping trip. The second place we went to had death metal music upstairs, which was basically loud terrible noise. We didn’t stay too long and went to Croft. This is a medical theme bar that is hidden in a zigzag alley. It was scary and the thought of being murdered and chopped up into little pieces did crossed my mind. This place had test tubes in display cases around the bar. The bathroom upstairs looked like an operating room equipped with a hospital bed. The upstairs bar had real grass as a counter top, pretty strange. I don’t know how people find these places if they haven’t been there before. I'm so glad to have a personal tour guide with us. I guess the harder a place is to find, the cooler it is.
Neil had done some research on bars he thought were interesting, so we started walking downtown. Melbourne is all about bars with themes. First, we went to the Loop, which had video game images projected onto the walls. The people were friendly at the bars and they would randomly start conversations with us. I think one guy was Russian and he had a thick accent which made it hard to understand what he was saying. He was a sprayer so I had to keep wiping his spit off my arm every minute or so…gross.
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| Washroom at Croft |
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